Efficiencies can be found further downstream as well. Boeing’s use of the HoloLens and BARK (Boeing Augmented Reality Kit) as part of its digital manufacturing program exemplifies how AR can shave time and costs from later production stages. In a session at AWE, Laura Bogusch, the general manager at a Boeing airplane manufacturing site in Salt Lake City, says that mechanics used the system along with QR code guides to install 150 miles of cabling per plane. After reporting first-pass quality compliance of 88% and a 20% reduction in time, the company will use the system to wire its new Air Force One fleet.

Further afield, aerospace companies such as Airbus and Boeing plan to create digital factories in the metaverse. In these shared virtual spaces, 3D digital twins of aircrafts and manufacturing systems are supported by data reservoirs that, according to a report from Reuters, “stitch together every piece of information about the aircraft … from airline requirements to millions of parts to thousands of pages of certification documents.” By running sophisticated performance tests, if these systems evolve as executives and engineers hope, they could significantly improve production speed and quality.

A study by the Manufacturing Institute found that 78% of surveyed companies were “very or somewhat” concerned about the exodus of the sector’s aging workforce; as of 2017, nearly a quarter of these employees were 55 or older. Facility managers may become particularly hard to find, as 40% of them are projected to retire in the next eight years. This is one reason why the use case for XR as a training tool has emerged in manufacturing.

“I wouldn’t call facility operators a dying breed,” Campbell says. “But there are fewer of them by the day; they’re retiring out of the industry, and we’re bringing in new ones. So there’s a model to say, ‘Let’s make a remote expert out of that guy who’s been turning wrenches for 50 years.’ And younger, greener staff can go out to the jobsites or the functioning buildings while senior employees advise them about how to change a filter, what sequence to turn the valves, and so on.”

“There’s the whole assembly aspect, as well: training people to assemble the car and making sure the movements they perform are ergonomic so they won’t be harmed by doing them 50 times a day,” Fäth says.

Beyond workflow efficiency, digital models aim to improve the likeliness of customer satisfaction. Although many car companies start with a physical model, Fäth says, they will then replicate that model with a digital twin in MR that has a translucent layer of interactive content on the car’s surface and in its interior.

At early design phases, customers participate in Q&A sessions to help refine key features. “Eye gaze, where you’re looking, is extremely interesting at the early design phase,” Fäth says. Using heat maps to plot where customers are looking, and for how long, can provide useful insights about the user experience and how to maximize customer satisfaction during the design phase.

VR can also be used in manufacturing and product design to woo prospective clients. That’s not simply because it’s “a shiny new technology,” Campbell says. “It’s really about giving the client confidence that you understand the scope of work, and you’re in good alignment—like, this is what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it.”

Many high-end automotive brands already offer sophisticated digital experiences at their dealerships. “You’re sitting in a virtual car, and they can change all the configurations,” Fonta says, referring to color and material options. “You have the flexibility to choose the final car you would actually buy—not just say, ‘I like the orange one more than the black one,’ then see, on the final delivery, there’s too much orange in the car.”

XR is seeing some of its strongest momentum in media and entertainment. From recently released VR games such as Cities: VR for Oculus (Meta) Quest 2 to Snapchat and Instagram Story AR filters that add digital layers (such as light effects or a new head of hair) to your photos, the technology is becoming familiar to many.

Whether it’s adding photorealistic scenery to video games, engaging film audiences, or creating virtual exhibitions like those found at the National Gallery in London, the convergence of virtual and real worlds is happening now. Gaming, a market valued at $11.5 billion in 2019, is projected to grow by 30% each year from now through 2027. And AR in retail is on the rise. According to a research report by Deloitte and Snap (the parent company of Snapchat), by 2025, 75% of the population—and almost all smartphone users—will be using AR frequently (PDF, p. 4). Brands such as Nike and L’Oreal have leaned into the technology, with AR experiences letting prospective customers try on sneakers or experiment with makeup using the front-facing camera on their phone.

Hilmar Koch, director of Autodesk’s Industry Futures group in media and entertainment, says one of the newest use cases for XR is a kind of TV and film staging called virtual production. Rather than placing actors in front of green screens, resulting in the counterfeit look of, say, a Seinfeld episode when Jerry and Elaine are riding in a taxi, actors can be placed before holographic LED volumes depicting imagined settings. “This is how Lucasfilm is doing their work, nowadays, on The Mandalorian,” Koch says.